Pro-Renewal Political Groups Expected to Launch 500 Candidates in Coming Election

02/13/2018 - 11h01

Political movements that have emerged over the past months are seeking to renew the political landscape and launch at least 500 candidates for the October elections, joining different political parties to run for office.

The estimate, which Folha made based on figures provided by the organizations in question, mostly consists of candidates running for a seat in the lower house of Congress or in the states' legislative assemblies.

However, there are also candidates who will be running for governor or for a seat in the Senate.

The biggest of the movements is RAPS (Political Action for Sustainability Network), which is planning on launching 200 candidates and getting at least half of them elected.

The entity is considered to be the precursor of groups like "Agora!", "Acredito" and "Brasil 21". The founders of the latter groups all belonged to RAPS, which was created by businessman Guilherme Leal, the vice-president on the Marina Silva presidential ticket back in 2010.

RenovaBR (which offers grants and courses to applicants) has already selected a group of 100 people and it plans on selecting an additional 50. Applicants are not required to run for office, but most of them have signaled that they intend to.

Members belonging to other organizations, such as Acredito, Brasil 21, Frente pela Renovação and Nós are also assessing whether or not they will be putting forth any candidates.

If they do decide to have candidates run for office, then they will have to join political parties no later than April 7th.

"The outlook for these movements is positive, but there are several challenges", said Miguel Nicacio, a political scientist and spokesperson for the Frente pela Renovação movement.

"There is a yearning for honest candidates who will represent voters. But we will compete with people who have an electoral fund of R$ 1.7 billion [US$ 517 million] on their side, parties' rotten apples.'

In the 2014 elections, 25,000 candidates ran for office.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

Read the article in the original language